Gilded Histories | Kerigan Pickett - Art Historian

This artwork depicts a complex and fragmented scene featuring a faun, a horse, and bird, rendered in Picasso's characteristic Cubist style. The figures are broken down into geometric shapes and reassembled in a non-naturalistic manner, creating a sense of dynamism and ambiguity. The composition is characterized by overlapping planes and a limited color palette, primarily consisting of blues, greens, and browns. The faun, a mythological creature part human and part goat, is central to the composition, interacting with the horse and bird in a symbolic and enigmatic way. The work explores themes o of mythology, nature, and the relationship between humans and animals.

Faun, Horse and Bird by Pablo Picasso, 1936, Musée Picass (Paris, France)

#ArtHistory #ModernArt #NeoClassicist #Surrealism

Interieur einer Fischerstube auf den Halligen

Guten Morgen!
Clarita Beyer, * 5.11.1864 in Mazatlán, Mexiko; † 18.8.1929 in Kiel, war eine deutsche Malerin 🎨 🇩🇪
Interieur einer Fischerstube auf den Halligen 🖼️
#OTD #ArtHistory #History #BskyArt

This painting depicts a single, strikingly vibrant Blue Morpho butterfly perched on a lush, dark green leaf. The butterfly's wings are predominantly brilliant, iridescent blue, with contrasting black markings and a hint of red near the body. The background is a deep, shadowy green, emphasizing the butterfly's luminosity and delicate form. The composition is simple and focused, highlighting beauty and fragility of the insect. It is part of a series of butterfly paintings Heade created. Heade's butterfly paintings fall within the late 19th-century American art scene, a period transitioning between the Hudson River School and the rise of American Impressionism. While influenced by the meticulous detail of earlier naturalistic painters, Heade's work also anticipates the focus on light and color characteristic of Impressionism. He was a contemporary of artists like John La Farge and William Merritt Chase, who were also exploring innovative approaches of color and subject matter. His work is often categorized as Luminism, emphasizing atmospheric effects and subtle gradations of light.

Blue Morpho Butterfly, Martin Johnson Heade, 1890, Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art (Bentonville, AR)

#ArtHistory #Romanticism

In 1826 Joseph Nicéphore Niépce made the earliest surviving photograph, View from the Window at Le Gras; that heliograph transformed image-making, laying the technical and artistic foundations for photography as a new art form #ArtHistory

The title pretty well covers it, but let’s hear from Obelisk Art History: “When you think of Vincent Van Gogh, his vibrant, hallucinatory visions spring to mind. Star-filled skies, electric yellow, and piercing self portraits. This dapper corpse, with its rictus grin and dangling cig, is a whole different beast. Rendered in monochrome on a stark black background, it’s missing Van Gogh’s signature swirling brushstrokes and bold color. His marks are loose, almost casual, neatly capturing form and shadow with the bare minimum of strokes. It’s simple, and kind of funny.”

The artist may surprise you: Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890), Head of a Skeleton with a Burning Cigarette, 1886, oil on canvas, 32.3 cm x 24.8 cm, Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam. Done when he was taking classes at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp. #arthistory #art #painting #oilpainting

If you are looking for a little bit of inspiration to start the week, The Public Domain Review website is a real treasure trove full of all kinds of fascinating images. Here are photographic experiments by Edward J. Woolsey from year 1869.
#photography #arthistory #art

In this portrait, Madame de Pompadour wears a French style open-front shimmering silk gown with a matching petticoat – the height of Rococo elegance. Both the gown and the petticoat are embellished with copious amounts of small pink roses, probably also made of silk. Jeanne-Antoinette Poisson became the new mistress of King Louis XV in 1745; the king bestowed upon her the title of Madame de Pompadour. By the time of Boucher’s 1756 portrait, she was no longer the king’s mistress but had transitioned to his confidante and advisor. Boucher painted twelve flattering portraits of Pompadour over the course of their collaboration; he presented her as lovely but also as intelligent and loyal (in this portrait, her spaniel pup, Inés, attests to her faithfulness) and always dressed in the latest fashions (look at her fabulous pink shoes!). Boucher paints her as the epitome of elegance and grace. Pompadour’s support of Boucher helped him to become the leading decorative painter of his time.

October's theme: Fabulous Gowns in Art
FRANÇOIS BOUCHER (1703 - 1770), “Portrait of Madame de Pompadour”, 1756.
Alte Pinakotek, Munich, Germany.
#arthistory #art #portrait

Margaret of Austria. When older, she governed the Netherlands for many years, and was also a great collector and patron. Here portrayed at age 10 in 1490 by Jean Hey, whose day is today.

John Constable exhibited The Hay Wain at the Royal Academy in 1821, elevating rural English landscape into a subject of national pride, influencing plein‑air practice and later European naturalist painters #ArtHistory

Women, hunched over, carry heavy sacks across their shoulders and backs. Most people don’t know that before he became an artist, Vincent was a missionary to a coal mining region of Belgium. The story of his time there breaks my heart. He arrived to discover the people led lives of back-breaking work and poverty. So he began giving what he had away to the poor, including his fine clothes. He let a poor man live in his nicely furnished flat and went to live in a hovel himself. He went down into the coal mines and saw how harsh that work actually was. He saw little children working there in dangerous conditions instead of being in school. His superiors, aghast at his lack of decorum, withdrew their support and called him back. I try to wrap my mind around this scenario. Giving what he had to the poor, as Jesus taught, disqualified him from the mission field. I have to wonder. If the mission board had supported his actions instead, applauded them, would he have become as Saint Francis? A Mother Teresa? We’ll never know.

By Vincent Van Gogh (1853-1890), Women Carrying Sacks of Coal in the Snow, chalk, brush in ink, and opaque and transparent watercolor on wove paper, 12.5x19.6 inches (32x50 cm), Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo, Netherlands. More in ALT. #arthistory #painting #oilpainting #labor

A (woodblock?) print depicting four witches, facing a devil in the centre of the composition. The two nearest him are handing him human-shaped poppets. The devil has sharp horns, pointed ears, bat wings, a pointed tail, and clawed feet. Reptilian and giant insect creatures fly in the air above.

"Wax dolls being given to devil." The History of Witches and Wizards, 1720. Wellcome Collection. Public Domain. Source: wellcomecollection.org/works/ykvvwsqv

#WitchSky #WitchAlt #art #ArtHistory #illustration

Ancient Greek mosaic depicting Thetis seated on a hippocampus, delivering a spear and the shield of Achilles newly forged by Hephaistos, about 4th c. BC.

#mosaicmonday 🏺 Ancient #Greek mosaic depicting Thetis seated on a hippocampus, delivering a spear and the shield of Achilles newly forged by Hephaistos, about 4th c. BC.

🥏 Note the small fins on the sea horse's legs!

#archaeology 🗃️ #arthistory #skystorians #ancientbluesky

Vasily Kandinsky, Improvisation No. 30 (Canons), 1913. The Art Institute of Chicago. www.artic.edu/artworks/899...
#ArtHistory #Art #History #VasilyKandinsky #Kandinsky #AbstractArt #Paintings
💻 Visit GildedHistories.WordPress.com for more art and history content! #CreativeHistorian

A painting of a crowd of women, sitting huddled together before the silhouette of a dark billy goat with glowing eyes, beard, and long, twisted horns. He is sitting on the ground in a human posture with black drapery over his body and legs.

The Spanish "aquelarre" or coven/witches' sabbath, is said to possibly derive from the Basque "akelarre" (aker/male goat + larre/field)

Aquelarre/El gran cabrón (Witches' Sabbath/The Great He-Goat), Francisco de Goya, 1820-23, Museo del Prado, Wikimedia Commons, source ⬇️ #WitchSky #art #ArtHistory

Jean Hay, The Annunciation, 1490-95. The Art Institute of Chicago. www.artic.edu/artworks/163...
#ArtHistory #Art #History #Annunciation #JeanHey #NorthernRenaissance #Renaissance #RenaissanceArt #Paintings
💻 Visit GildedHistories.WordPress.com for more art and history content! #CreativeHistorian

A poster style illustration from Alphonse Mucha, showing a beautiful young lady leaning on some vines, relaxing. She has long brown hair, crowned with red and pink flowers, and her feet are dangling in water. She is wrapped in a loose pale cloth dress, and surrounded by some tall grasses and other plants. There is a decorative Art Nouveau border with white roses.

#FineArtFriday courtesy of Alphonse Mucha - "Summer" from The Seasons series, circa 1896

My favourite Art Nouveau artist, using elegant flowing elements and a palette of soft colours.

#AlphonseMucha #ArtNouveau #SummerArt #ArtHistory #ArtisticElegance #Masterpiece #FineArt #IllustrationArt

"We should remember our dying and try so to live that our death brings no pleasure to the world.” ― John Steinbeck

🎨: Procession des Âmes / Procession of Souls, Louis Welden Hawkins (1849 -1910)

louisweldenhawkins.wordpress.com

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#elizahleighartwriter #louisweldenhawkins #art #arthistory

A bustling, prosperous urban street scene. Well-fed citizens, including butchers and fishwives, drink large tankards of beer. A building is being constructed in the background, and a pawnbroker's shop is falling into ruin.

A scene of urban decay and despair. Buildings are dilapidated, and the inhabitants are emaciated and distraught. In the foreground, a woman lets her baby fall to its death while a man beats himself with bellows. The only businesses that appear to be thriving are a distillery and a pawnbroker.

In 1751, English artist William Hogarth created the companion engraved etchings "Beer Street" and "Gin Lane" in response to the Gin Act of that year. The prints were intended to contrast the positive effects of beer with the deleterious effects of gin.

#arthistory #history #beer #gin

Marie Denise Villers, Marie Joséphine Charlotte du Val d'Ognes (1786-1868), 1801. The MET. www.metmuseum.org/art/collecti...
#ArtHistory #MarieDeniseVillers #MisidentifiedArtist #LindaNochlin
💻 Viait GildedHistories.WordPress.com for more art and history content! #CreativeHistorian

Paul Cezanne, Gardanne, 1885-86. The MET. www.metmuseum.org/art/collecti...
#ArtHistory #PaulCezanne #Cezanne #Paintings #Landscape #19thCentury
💻 Visit GildedHistories.WordPress.com for more art and history content! #CreativeHistorian

Two heads. One without a hat.

#AlphabetChallenge #WeekHforHats
#art #TheBurrellCollectionGlasgow #Portraits #ArtHistory #WomenOfInfluence #Smug

'As urgent and relevant today as it ever was': The radical manifesto hidden in Georges Seurat's 1884 masterpiece Georges Seurat's once-mocked painting Bathers at Asnières is both an "exquisite distillation of the very essence of summer" and "a modern wonder in the art of seeing".

'As urgent and relevant today as it ever was': The radical #manifesto hidden in #GeorgesSeurat 's 1884 masterpiece.

#Art #ArtHistory #Painting

www.bbc.com/culture/arti...

Wallace Polsom, “Firestarter” (03 Jul 2016), paper collage, 17.4 x 24.6 cm | wallacepolsom.com/post/1468662... #papercollage #collage #art #contemporaryart #firestarter #surrealart #arthistory

Adriaen van de Venne, 1620-1626 (British Museum) A couple dancing. Actually they’re strutting their funky stuff.

Van der Elsken moved to Paris in 1950 and became a part of the post-World War II ethos found among the disaffected youth there, particularly in the neighborhood of Saint-Germain-de-Prés where he lived. He found a job in the Magnum photo lab printing the work of such photographic luminaries as Henri Cartier-Bresson, Robert Capa and Ernest Haas. It was at Magnum that he met Ata Kando, a fellow photographer who would become his first wife (all three of his wives were professional photographers). This “Self-Portrait with Ata Kando, Paris” from 1953 is full of hazy light and moody atmosphere; it is an intimate, candid photo that was taken the year before they married. Van der Elsken produced multiple photo books and film projects, using his own rather eccentric life experiences as artistic fodder.

August's theme: photographic selfies
ED VAN DER ELSKEN (1925 - 1990), “Self-Portrait with Ata Kando, Paris”, 1953.
Described as a “difficult red-headed firebrand”, the Danish photographer captured raw street shots filled with love, sex, jazz music & alternative culture.
#arthistory #art #photography

In 1917, Georgia O’Keeffe held her first solo exhibition at 291 Gallery in New York. Her bold abstractions and organic forms marked a turning point in American modernism. #ArtHistory

Painting shows the Boulevard Montmartre at nighttime. We see the buzzling streets, the different lights, it looks wet like it just has rained before.

Camille Pissarro, Boulevard Montmartreat Night, 1897 National Gallery, London
The "Boulevard Montmatre at Night" is one of a series of 14 Pissarro painted of the street. It is also the only known night painting by Pissarro.
#Pissarro #Montmatre #ArtHistory #PostImpressionism

Roman mosaic of a lion with some flowers and other vegetation, 6th century C.E., made of stone and mortar.

For #caturday quite a contemporary looking #Roman mosaic of a lion, 6th century C.E., made of stone and mortar.

🏛️ Brooklyn Museum (not on view for some mysterious reason...)

🏺 #archaeology 🗃️ #arthistory #history #art #mosaicmonday #cat #cats #catsofbluesky

Throughout his life, Cézanne painted more then 200 landscapes. One of his favorite subjects was the limestone peak of Mont Sainte-Victoire in Provence in southern France. The artist had a special connection to the landscape, as Mont Sainte-Victoire was located near his hometown, Aix-en-Provence. Cézanne spent significant portions of his adult life in Aix-en-Provence, and he painted the local landscape at different stages of his career. In 1897, he settled permanently in Aix-en-Provence and lived there until he died in 1906. In his landscapes, Cézanne aimed to reveal the inner geometry of nature, saying he wanted “to make of Impressionism something solid and durable, like the art of museums”. This painting is an early example of the Mont Sainte-Victoire series, which shows the mountain rising above the Arc River Valley. The scene was likely painted from his sister’s property at the top of the hill behind her house. Cézanne included details of the property, as well as the walls, fields, and neighboring farmhouses. Another important element is the railroad viaduct with a moving train on the bridge. Cutting through the landscape, the railroad viaduct resembles a Roman aqueduct and recalls the paintings of Nicolas Poussin, like The Finding of Moses (1638). In a letter, Cézanne wrote to a friend and writer Émile Zola, dated April 14, 1878, he described the train passing through the railway bridge at Arc River Valley as a “beautiful motif.” He included architectural elements to enhance the landscape and to contrast between the natural landscape and the manmade environment.

Mont Sainte-Victoire and the Viaduct of the Arc River Valley by Paul Cézanne, 1882-1985, Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York City, NY)

#ArtHistory #ModernArt #PostImpressionism

🖼️ In 1965, Yves Saint Laurent debuted his Mondrian-inspired dresses, blending high fashion with modern art. The bold geometric designs brought Piet Mondrian’s abstract aesthetic to the runway, redefining wearable art. #ArtHistory